Yeah, about that little day trip across the border...

Erla Osk Arnardottir Lillendahl, from the Islamic Republic of, err, Iceland, describes the punishment inflicted upon her by Homeland Security for overstaying her VISA by three weeks in 1995.

During the last twenty-four hours I have probably experienced the greatest humiliation to which I have ever been subjected. During these last twenty-four hours I have been handcuffed and chained, denied the chance to sleep, been without food and drink and been confined to a place without anyone knowing my whereabouts, imprisoned.

She was over the course of 24 hours repeatedly interrogated; deprived of food, water, sleep and her belongings; twice publicly humiliated at JFK; and, transported across state lines and locked in what appears to have been a solitary confinement cell. Oh yeah, and Lillendahl's family, not to mention the Icelandic consul, was lied to about her whereabouts.

h/t

Huckabee continues to amaze

Re: Jeremiah White:

"As easy as it is for those of us who are white to look back and say 'That's a terrible statement!' ... I grew up in a very segregated South. And I think that you have to cut some slack -- and I'm gonna be probably the only conservative in America who's gonna say something like this, but I'm just tellin' you -- we've gotta cut some slack to people who grew up being called names..."

Rod Dreher links to a guy with a history of calling names:

I think my mother had decency enough to be embarrassed as the man took her money and handed over the prescription as he muttered, "I'm not a n***er." I wonder what that poor man must have felt -- what a man old enough to be my father felt -- when this little white boy was blithely, naturally as he breathed in the air, running around the house announcing the presence of the fill-in-the-blank "n***er."

What does it do to a man to be so cavalierly dehumanized even by a small child? What does it do to a small child to so cavalierly dehumanize a man he ought to be calling "sir"? At least in a more rightly ordered society.

I am an enormous fan of Huckabee's, if only because of his ability to confound the left. After Iowa, he was a crazy right-wing Christian extremist. But then he criticized Bush's foreign policy. And now this? Complexity Overload!

Statements like this make one wonder what kind of long-term game Huckabee is playing. A McCain-Huckabee ticket would be an amazing one to watch.

Wronger Than Ezra

Sorry, but I disagree:

Two groups of protesters met in Calgary yesterday: 25 members of the "Aryan Guard" white supremacist group, and 150 assorted leftist urchins, led by Bonnie Collins, the Communist Party candidate and spokewoman for the often-violent group, Anti-Racist Action.

A pox on both of their houses, I say.

And that's the point. I despise them both.

In fact, it's those "leftist urchins" that are the strongest indicator of the obsolescence of the CHRC and other assorted thought crimes laws. Upon hearing that the Aryan Nations people were going on a march, civil society conjured up a corrective of sorts. No violence (though there might have been without the police there). Just a show of strength on the part of right-thinking non-nazi types.

And not to belabour the point, but there were 25 AN marchers and 200 counter-protesters. That's 8:1 on the side of civil society [Just as Calgary hits the 1,000,000 mark, the city's "resurgent" white supremacist community managed to muster a whole 25 people for it's social event of the season]. When Canadian society can solve it's own problems like it did in Calgary on the weekend, why then do we need the CHRC to repossess some of our free speech rights in order to protect us from 25 doofuses with bad (if any) hair?

The Real Buckley

Some of us tired very quickly of the establishment obituaries for William Buckley that appeared earlier this month. David Gordon presents one contrary sliver of the man:

When Rothbard died, Buckley reacted with malicious spite. In an obituary published in National Review on February 6, 1995, Buckley classed Rothbard with the cultist David Koresh. He wrote: "In Murray’s case, much of what drove him was a contrarian spirit." Rothbard, in Buckley’s view, was mentally ill, the victim of "deranging scrupulosity." Buckley did not scruple to mock Rothbard, who, "huffing and puffing in the little cloister whose walls he labored so strenuously to contract," was left with "about as many disciples as David Koresh had in his little redoubt in Waco. Yes, Murray Rothbard believed in freedom, and yes, David Koresh believed in God." Buckley’s reference to "huffing and puffing" was especially deplorable, since Rothbard suffered from congestive heart failure.

Conservative Who?

Conservative Omar Soliman:

Two weeks ago I saw a Canadian on CNN kow-towing to the alarmism of Glenn Beck, who, before tapping his "great wisdom" in telling Canadians how much "deep trouble" they were in, mockingly thanked Canadians for their "delicious syrup" and for "invent[ing] the bacon that's on top of the egg McMuffin."

Ha ha ha. Oh wait, I was supposed to be offended?...

Omar lectures on:

For some, there exists a complex in respect of being able to introspectively connect with the Canadian character—a confusion, of sorts, between being content with what we are as a nation versus the vainglorious (and sometimes near-autocratic) pursuit of the greatness or esteem to which we can, one day, be held.

I think I speak for 99% of the English-speaking world when I say, "huh?"

Omar continues on with phrases like, "the Canada we all know and love." Which is precisely the problem. We don't all know the same Canada. Canada in Cape Breton is different than Canada in Mormon Country Alberta. Conservatives know that, centralist Trudeaupians don't. Omar doesn't seem to yet, which proves that Young Grasshopper has much to learn from people other than Mr. Kinsella.

And, (shockingly) alot of Canadians have very little love for the country. That might help to explain what happened in 1995, but whatever.

Rockin'

Hey, a non-earnest anti-nazi!



Indeed they are. Yucky, too.

By the way, do I have to state the obvious? 25 Aryan Nations people "marched" (with the aid of police protection - they're tough guys, after all) while 200 anti-nazi protesters showed up. And I need Warman and the CHRC why again?

I'll take that chick above any day.

h/t

Stuff in Perspective

What Matters:

MS KULASZKA: Mr. Steacy, you were talking before about context and how important it is when you do your investigation. What value do you give freedom of speech when you investigate one of these complaints?

MR. STEACY: Freedom of speech is an American concept, so I don't give it any value.

MS KULASZKA: Okay. That was a clear answer.

MR. STEACY: It's not my job to give value to an American concept.

What Doesn't:



And why, you ask? Because Steacy & Co. think that I have no right to free speech. Skinhead & Co. only think that I have no right to shop at The Rocket on a Saturday afternoon.

Ha ha, I'm just kidding. Neo-Nazis do many bad things, like firebomb houses with children inside and then say mean things about it to the victims afterwards. But this is a good reason for the police, not the CHRC, to go after John Q. Firebomber. The CHRC only goes after John Q. Firebomber if he writes "Jew are Poop Heads" on an online message board.

Kicking Ass

The government's conduct over Brenda Martin is so outrageous that someone made a youtube video about it.

Don't these things usually escalate from a comment on Rabble, to a blog post, to a youtube video?

No sacrifice too great...

Astoundingly...

"Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties." -John Milton

Yet, contrary to the beliefs of Canadian human rights advocates, John Milton is not in fact a member of the Calgary Chapter of the Aryan Nations.